Board OKs executive committee decision

Todd Korth

05/30/2007

‘Problem' between Jones and staff dates back to last fall

The 45-member Green Bay Packers Board of Directors unanimously approved the team's executive committee's decision to place Packers president and chief operating officer John Jones on a indefinite leave of absence this morning during its quarterly meeting at Lambeau Field.

Jones was expected to take over as team president in place of Bob Harlan today, but "management issues" dating back to last fall caused Harlan and the executive committee to hold off on allowing Jones to move forward as the organization's 10th president. Jones was informed of the decision by the executive committee last Friday, and the decision was announced publicly a day later.

Harlan, 70, has agreed to delay his retirement from the organization until the executive committee names the next president, whether it be Jones or someone else.

Details of why Jones was placed on a leave of absence were explained to the Board of Directors, but Harlan offered no further specifics while addressing the media following the meeting.

"As we have said, they are management issues, which lingered for a number of months, and we felt that they finally had to be dealt with by me going to the executive committee and then the executive committee dealing with John," said Harlan.

Harlan did reveal that ‘incidents' between he and Jones, and other staff members surfaced last fall. He was hoping that the issues would subside, or be resolved, but when staff members approached him a few weeks ago, he felt he had to inform the executive committee of the "problem" within the offices at 1265 Lombardi Ave.

"I thought (Jones) was extremely qualified when I brought him on and we worked extremely well through the early stages, but once this problem surfaced, I wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one seeing it, and that's why I wanted to take as much time as possible before we dealt with it," Harlan said. "As it continued and escalated, the time came for me to go to the executive committee."

Jones, who has three years left on his contract with the team, is on a paid leave of absence. Harlan said that no severance package has been discussed, and that it is "a situation where he definitely could come back."

In the meantime, the executive committee plans to meet weekly instead of monthly to either bring Jones back, or find a successor for Harlan.

"We're not going to linger," Harlan said. "We're not going to let this drag. We're going to act as appropriately as we possibly can."

Board approves nomination of four candidates
Nominations of four candidates were approved by the board of directors today to be voted upon by shareholders at the organization's annual meeting, July 25, at Lambeau Field.